September 17, 2026. Quantum names rallied — RGTI +7.75% intraday, QUBT +5.56%.
On green days, retail thinks about adding. I thought about exiting.
That’s not bravado. Nine months of account data already delivered the verdict: my option-selling engine made +$2,048 across 143 trades, while 48 stock-direction trades lost -$4,064 — eight tickers, seven in the red. Stocks are where I bleed, and a rally day is exactly the right day to execute an exit plan. This journal covers Day 1 of the phased stock exit.
I. Today’s Trade Ledger
📒 Ledger detail (click to expand)
| Time | Action | Qty | Price | Realized |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-market | NOK 10P SEP18 bought back | 2 | $0.04 (sold avg $0.243) | +$40.60 |
| Intraday | NOK 10P SEP25 bought back | 2 | $0.10 (sold avg $0.353) | +$50.60 |
| 15:10 | QUBT liquidated (50/100/150) | 300 shares | $8.422 / $8.425 / $8.4223 | -$371.16 |
| 15:11 | RGTI 18C OCT9 sold | 2 | $0.47 | +$94 premium (unrealized) |
Daily realized on the broker’s settlement basis: -$374.26 (the three lines above plus commissions). The $371.16 QUBT figure uses the $9.66 tracked cost; the ~$91 gap to the settlement figure (≈$0.30/share) comes from the broker’s cost-basis treatment and historical fee adjustments — settlement basis wins.
The two NOK put buybacks were housekeeping: 10P SEP18 was up 92% with expiry tomorrow, 10P SEP25 up 72% — both hit the seller’s profit-taking discipline. The real work was the two stock exits below.
II. Premium Thickness Decides the Exit Method
QUBT and RGTI both needed to go — but by different routes. One criterion ruled: is the CC premium worth locking the stock for 30 days?
Live chain data that day (29 DTE, “strike ≥ cost” exit-style CCs):
| Ticker | Spot | Exit strike | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| RGTI | $15.94 | 18C (needs +13% to exceed $17.86 cost) | $0.63-0.67 |
| QUBT | $8.45 | 10C (needs +18% to exceed $9.66 cost) | $0.22-0.23 |
Same “assignment = profitable exit” structure, but RGTI’s rent is three times QUBT’s. $22 to lock shares for 29 days while carrying an 18% upside gap? Not worth it. $65 on RGTI? Now renting your way out makes sense.
So: QUBT sold outright, RGTI exited via Calls.
QUBT filled at an $8.423 average — above the $8.25 top rung of my old GTC plan; the rally day handed me a better exit than I had planned. RGTI got 2× 18C OCT9 sold at $0.47, $94 of premium in (about $92 after fees). That Call isn’t rent collection — it’s writing the sell decision into the price in advance: if RGTI runs past 18, I sell at 18, above my $17.86 cost, and exit in profit; if it doesn’t, I keep the $92 and run the same play in 29 days.
III. The Phased Stock Exit Framework
Three steps, each with its own selection rule:
- Thin premium? Sell outright. Rent that doesn’t justify a lock-up means no lock-up. Timing belongs to GTC ladder orders — no staring, no betting on highs.
- Thick premium? Exit via CC. Strike must be ≥ cost — assignment isn’t an accident, it’s your sell order filling. The premium is your pay for waiting.
- Liquidity trap? Handle it last. TRON’s 2,300 shares plus 17 short Calls sit at the end of the queue: sell the 600 free shares first, buy back the Calls to unlock, then liquidate. Order matters.
Two iron rules run through all of it: sell first, repair second, deploy last — no new positions the night you liquidate, recovered capital first restores positive cash and sub-1.5x leverage; and exit-vehicle exceptions during RED state must be reviewed and logged — this RGTI Call was approved and recorded by the AI review process, not casually “rent collected”.
IV. The Account After Execution
One night of liquidation plus rent turned the account from RED toward repair: cash -$1,758 → +$860 positive, leverage 1.55x → 1.29x, and RGTI concentration starts shrinking toward control (assignment at 18C zeroes it out).
One hard bone remains in the stock book: TRON. Schedule unchanged — step three above.
Hunter’s Summary
A rally day isn’t a greed day. It’s a plan-execution day. Split the sell into three rungs — thin premium sold outright, thick premium sold as Calls, trap positions dismantled slowly — and exiting stops being an emotional decision and becomes an assembly line.
Day 1 done: cash positive, leverage back in the safe zone. The phased exit showed its first advantage: you don’t need to nail every price in one bet — you just need every step to stay on the plan.
Trade Journal · Phased Stock Exit Series · Day 1
Addendum (2026-10-13): The ledger figures cited here re-verified against broker trade-level settlement records: options corrected from 121 trades / +$1,825 to 143 trades / +$2,048; stock direction from 41 trades / -$2,874 to 48 trades / -$4,064 (7 of 8 tickers in the red). The day-one trade ledger and account figures are unaffected.